Okay, nobody really gets those two things confused. But they do rhyme.
I got a hankering for some Cajun food, as I usually do towards mid-September when it’s still hot but I’m ready for something stewy. Normally, crawfish is my étouffée of choice, but we do not catch crawfish. I’m sure we could, but we don’t. In keeping with my “bag ’em and eat ’em” theme here, it begged the question, “Can you make étouffée with sausage?”
Oh honey, YOU BET!
Now, let me talk to you about sausage for a minute. Andouille is the best for sausage and chicken étouffée. Or Boudin, but traditional Boudin falls apart a little too easily imho for étouffée. We do have a processor that makes a Boudin that doesn’t fall apart (because they do it kinda wrong) and would work swimmingly in any Cajun dish, but alas, we did not order any last season.
Which brings me to my point. If you do not have a processor that makes Andouille or makes Boudin kinda incorrectly, you want to use a sausage that is both smoked and spicy. Smoked jalapeno will be your typical choice, and it works wonderfully in this dish.
Lastly, while étouffée has a bit of a reputation for taking a long time to cook, I found it wasn’t actually that bad. We got a lovely stew with only about ten minutes of stewing time at the end. I’d give this recipe 45 minutes, tops.
- 3/4 cup butter
- 3/4 cup flour
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 1 onion diced
- 1 bell pepper diced
- 2 tsp kosher salt or to taste
- 1-2 tsp cayenne pepper or to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 4 tbsp butter yes, more butter
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs cubed
- 2 pounds spicy smoked venison sausage Chopped in large chunks. Andouille, if you can find a processor that makes it
- 1 bunch green onion white and green parts sliced for serving
- steamed white rice for serving
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In a large dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and continue to whisk constantly and cook until the roux is about the color of hot chocolate, about 12 minutes. Add the celery, onion and bell pepper and continue to cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
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Stir in the salt, cayenne, dried thyme and pepper. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, and then simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
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While simmering the sauce, heat the rest of the butter in another skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and the sausage and cook tossing lightly until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage and chicken and any leftover butter to the dutch oven. Add the last 1 cup of chicken stock to the skillet and deglaze, scraping up any bits that are stuck on the bottom and add to the dutch oven.
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Cook over medium, stirring occasionally until the chicken is cooked through, about ten more minutes. Serve over steamed rice and garnish with green onion.
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